Milestones: 1750–1775

French and Indian War/Seven Years’ War, 1754–63

The French and Indian War was the North American conflict that was part of a
larger imperial conflict between Great Britain and France known as the Seven
Years’ War. The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of
Paris in 1763. The war provided Great Britain enormous territorial gains in
North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying the war’s
expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American
revolution.

Map from the French and Indian War

The French and Indian War resulted from ongoing frontier tensions in North
America as both French and British imperial officials and colonists sought to
extend each country’s sphere of influence in frontier regions. In North America,
the war pitted France, French colonists, and their Native allies against Great
Britain, the Anglo-American colonists and the Iroquois Confederacy, which
controlled most of upstate New York and parts of northern Pennsylvania. In 1753,
prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Great Britain controlled the 13 colonies
up to the Appalachian Mountains, but beyond lay New France, a very large,
sparsely settled colony that stretched from Louisiana through the Mississippi
Valley and Great Lakes to Canada. (See Incidents Leading up to the French and
Indian War and Albany Plan)

The border between French and British possessions was not well defined, and one
disputed territory was the upper Ohio River valley. The French had constructed a
number of forts in this region in an attempt to strengthen their claim on the
territory. British colonial forces, led by lieutenant colonel George Washington,
attempted to expel the French in 1754, but were outnumbered and defeated by the
French. When news of Washington’s failure reached British Prime Minister Thomas
Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, he called for a quick undeclared retaliatory
strike. However, his adversaries in the Cabinet outmaneuvered him by making the
plans public, thus alerting the French Government and escalating a distant
frontier skirmish into a full-scale war.

General Edward Braddock

The war did not begin well for the British. The British Government sent General
Edward Braddock to the colonies as commander in chief of British North American
forces, but he alienated potential Indian allies and colonial leaders failed to
cooperate with him. On July 13, 1755 Braddock himself died while on a failed
expedition to capture Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh, after being
mortally wounded in an ambush. The war in North America settled into a stalemate
for the next several years, while in Europe the French scored an important naval
victory and captured the British possession of Minorca in the Mediterranean in
1756. However, after 1757 the war began to turn in favor of Great Britain.
British forces defeated French forces in India, and in 1759 British armies
invaded and conquered Canada.

Facing defeat in North America and a tenuous position in Europe, the French
Government attempted to engage the British in peace negotiations, but British
minister William Pitt (the elder), Secretary for Southern Affairs, sought not
only the French cession of Canada but also commercial concessions that the
French Government found unacceptable. After these negotiations failed, Spanish
King Charles III offered to come to the aid of his cousin, French King Louis XV,
and their representatives signed an alliance known as the Family Compact on
August 15, 1761. The terms of the agreement stated that Spain would declare war
on Great Britain if the war did not end before May 1, 1762. Originally intended
to pressure the British into a peace agreement, the Family Compact ultimately
reinvigorated the French will to continue the war, and caused the British
Government to declare war on Spain on January 4, 1762 after bitter infighting
between King George III’s ministers.

Despite facing such a formidable alliance, British naval strength and Spanish
ineffectiveness led to British success. British forces seized French Caribbean
islands, Spanish Cuba, and the Philippines. Fighting in Europe ended after a
failed Spanish invasion of British ally Portugal. By 1763, French and Spanish
diplomats began to seek peace. In the resulting Treaty of Paris (1763), Great
Britain secured significant territorial gains, including all French territory
east of the Mississippi river, as well as Spanish Florida, although the treaty
returned Cuba to Spain.

Unfortunately for the British, the fruits of victory brought seeds of future
trouble with Great Britain’s American colonies. The war had been enormously
expensive, and the British government’s attempts to impose taxes on colonists to
help cover these expenses resulted in increasing colonial resentment of British
attempts to expand imperial authority in the colonies. British attempts to limit
western expansion by colonists and inadvertent provocation of a major Indian war
further angered the British subjects living in the American colonies. These
disputes would ultimately spur colonial rebellion that eventually developed into
a full-scale war for independence.